Stetson Wins Baseball Series Finale, 7-2

BATON ROUGE -- Stetson’s Aaron Crittenden, who was 3-for-4 at the plage with five RBI Sunday, led the Hatters past LSU, 7-2, in Alex Box Stadium.

Crittenden, the Hatters’ designated hitter, reached base four times and notched two extra-base hits on the day, including an ninth inning home run.

LSU (11-2) recorded its lowest run total of the season. Stetson (7-6) prevented the Tigers from posting their first 10-game winning streak since 2001.

Stetson starter Robby Donovan (2-1) enjoyed a fantastic outing, giving up only two runs in seven innings to take the victory.

“We just couldn’t do anything with their pitcher (Donovan) after (the first three innings),” LSU coach Paul Mainieri said. “He just beat us today.

“It was just one of those games where not a lot went right for us. It’s a disappointing loss, but you have to give credit to Stetson. They have a good ball club. They’ve had a good program for many years, and I expected they would come out and play hard today. They did what it took to win, and we didn’t.”

For the second game in a row, second baseman Ryan Schimpf led off with a home run. The sophomore launched his third dinger of the season into the bleachers in left center field. The Tigers took a 1-0 lead after one inning.

The top of third inning featured a pair of sensational defensive plays by LSU. Third baseman Michael Hollander robbed second baseman Casey Frawley of a surefire extra-base hit when the senior made a spectacular diving catch across his body on a line drive down the third base line.

After a single by Robert Crews in the next at-bat, catcher Sean Ochinko caught the Stetson shortstop napping on first and fired a dart to first baseman Matt Clark to pick him off.

The Tigers added their second run in the bottom of the third to increase their lead, 2-0. After consecutive singles by Hollander and Schimpf, Donovan threw a wild pitch allowing Hollander to score from third.

The Hatters gained a run back in the fourth to cut the lead to 2-1. Center fielder Justin Bass ripped a double into the gap in right center, and Crittenden drove him in with an RBI double into the gap in left center.

Stetson took the lead in the fifth, 3-2. Third baseman Jacob deGrom singled off LSU’s Blake Martin to start the inning, and Frawley walked. Martin induced a 5-4-3 double play to nab two outs, but first baseman Jeremy Cruz knocked in deGrom with a two-out base hit in the next at-bat to tie the game.

The Tigers aided the Hatters with the go-ahead run in the inning. A costly error allowed Bass to reach and Cruz to score all the way from first.

The Hatters increased their lead in the seventh, 4-2. Frawley singled and subsequently stole second base. Three batters later, Bass hit an infield single to advance Frawley to third, and Crittenden followed with an RBI base hit to score Frawley.

The Tigers tried to rally in the bottom of the eighth. Shortstop D.J. LeMahieu singled and Schimpf walked, but the Tigers were unable to capitalize. Designated hitter Derek Helenihi struck out, and left fielder Blake Dean popped up to second to strand the runners.

The Hatters put the game away in the top of the ninth. With two runners on base, Crittenden blasted a three-run shot over the left field wall to give Stetson the 7-2 lead.

“You can’t win them all,” Mainieri said. “11-2 is nothing to be a shamed of, but at the same time, we feel like we could have won every game that we’ve played.

“I feel good about where we are. I’m not going to panic because we lost the ball game today.”

Martin (1-1) was charged the loss as he surrendered two earned runs on seven hits in 4.2 inning with two walks and five strikeouts.